


Reconciliation

by ReturningMoon



Category: Until Dawn (Video Game)
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-02-05
Updated: 2021-02-05
Packaged: 2021-03-16 14:13:45
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,929
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29208675
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ReturningMoon/pseuds/ReturningMoon
Summary: This is a tie-in to “After Dusk”, but you don’t need to read that to understand, however I would read this if you are reading AD. Basically what Matt and Jess experienced in the mines together, and how they survived until dawn. Two parter, one-shot.
Relationships: Emily Davis & Matt Taylor (Until Dawn), Jessica Riley & Matt Taylor (Until Dawn), Jessica Riley/Matt Taylor (Until Dawn), Mike Munroe & Jessica Riley
Kudos: 2





	Reconciliation

Jessica heard screaming. The clanging of a gun being loaded. Glass cutting into her face, then shattering onto the wooden porch.  
Something raked across her collarbone and chest, then wrapped around her neck. Fuck. She couldn’t breathe. The screaming stopped-had those been her screams? Some of them didn’t sound like her-some didn’t even sound human. 

Jess had wildly grasped at the sticks and rocks around her, desperate for something to hold onto. She managed to latch onto a large rock and get out of the thing’s reach. She coughed and gasped, desperately trying to force air back into her lungs. She attempted to crawl back to the cabin, when she heard Mike call her name.  
The thing grabbed her ankle.

“AHHHH!!! MICHAEL, HELP ME!!!” Jess cried helplessly. Countless burrs and sharp rocks scratched her legs and torso as she was carried away. At least she could breathe.  
Mike’s voice grew more faint as he called her name. Jessica felt her body beginning to shut down, to surrender and freeze to the snow.  
Her skin was being ripped apart, torn to shreads, but it didn’t matter anymore. Her conscious mind had gone completely blank.  
Jessica heard a door slam; then she was lifted up onto something rough. Something metal.  
Then the thing-she saw it.

It looked like a corpse-a very slender, decaying corpse; despite the fact that it was at least seven feet tall and had animalistic teeth. It shoved its sharp fingers down her throat.  
Jess closed her eyes, waiting for the inevitable.

But it didn’t come.

The creature shrieked an awful screech towards the door, and lept off of Jessica. She exhaled a sigh of relief as it climbed away from her.  
Jess looked at the door while Mike rushed to the platform. 

“No!! Oh, God...Jess, no...Jess, Jess, are you okay?” Mike reached out to her mangled body as she locked her gray eyes with his brown ones.  
“..help...” she mumbled, quietly. And then the world begin flying upwards, so high, so far...and she was falling down.  
There was a crash, a blow to the head, and then everything went dark.  
~  
Cold. Freezing cold. That’s the first thing she felt.  
It enveloped around her, suffocated her like a python. She was dying. She had to be.  
There was a light. Jess remembered people on the soap operas she watched talk about “the light at the end of the tunnel”. This had to be it. She just had to wait, wait for it to be over....

Jessica opened her eyes.

The cliffs of the snowy mountain reflected light into the mineshaft. Jess stared up at the sky for a moment.  
“Oh...shit.” She whispered.  
She was alive.  
So why didn’t she feel relieved?

Jessica grunted in pain as she attempted to move. Her entire body hurt. Somehow, she managed to push herself up.  
“Shit!” A cut on her elbow slit open as she leaned against the rusted wall. She stumbled away from it, looking for something better to support her. She could barely stand.

Jess stumbled towards the other side of the mineshaft. A musty green jacket and some boots were resting on the metal frame of the elevator she’d fallen into.  
“Oh god...oh my god.” Jess pulled the jacket over her torn bra and underwear. She had slashes on her legs, her stomach, her backsides. Jesus, how the hell did everything happen so fast?  
She tied the straps of the jacket around her and put on the boots. Her head ached as she bent over to tie the laces. She whimpered, and tried to remind herself not to make any more quick movements.

The shriek. That terrifying, animalistic shriek. She heard it again. 

Jess looked back to make sure it wasn’t behind her before ducking into the darkness. She stumbled over rocks and dirt before finding a seemingly safe space between two boulders. She pulled her knees up to her chest and began to cry softly.

How had she gone from stripping down with her boyfriend to unconscious in a mineshaft so quickly? Everything, everything Jess had ever experienced in this life seemed so minimal, so laughably minuscule compared to now.  
She remembered how threatened-seriously, threatened-she’d felt compared to Emily. God, she had been so good at putting a front, like she didn’t know that Emily still had feelings for Mike. Like she didn’t know that Mike was just using her as a rebound.  
He’d never want her like this. She was pathetic, broken; practically naked and freezing in between two boulders.

Jess heard a crash. She pressed her back against the wall, covering her mouth with her hand and using the other to scramble for something, anything to defend herself from that awful creature. That had to be what it was, right?  
Jess’s nails scraped against a wooden pole. She turned to get a closer look and realized it was a handle. A shovel. She took it into her hands and slowly ascended from between the boulders. 

The intruder had lit some sort of flame. Fuck...did this thing breathe fire? Shaking, Jess forced herself to continue towards the source.  
It had its back facing away from her. It was a shadowy figure, not like the one who attacked her earlier. Still, Jess felt some primal instinct to disarm it, before it had the chance to hurt her.

Jess hurled the shovel at the figure’s back, just as it turned around, revealing that it was, in fact, Matt.  
“Whoa!!” Matt yelled, catching the shovel.  
“Aghhh!” Jess yelped in pain as the pressure of Matt’s arms on the shovel knocked the wind out of her body. She was stupid, stupid for thinking it was a good idea to hit him, even if she thought he was a monster...

“J-Jess? Is that you?” Matt brought the light up to her face. Oh god, she was embarrassed. She had no idea what she looked like, but she was sure as hell not going to model for Victoria’s Secret any time soon.  
“Matt...” she mumbled softly, barely above a whisper. Please, please, take me out of here. I know I haven’t been a great friend to you...  
Matt scanned over her injuries, concerned. “Jesus, Jess, what the hell happened to you? How the fuck are you still alive?” He asked.

She could ask herself the same thing. “Yeah...” she mumbled, shaking her head.  
“How did you end up down here?” Matt questioned. Jess now noticed the scars on his face, the dirt rimmed in his nails. What the hell had he been through tonight?

“Mike and I were...we were messing around and... and...then it was...we...” Jess fidgeted nervously.  
“What?” Matt asked, gently.  
“I don't-I don't know...I was by the window and there was all this glass and..it was in the snow and then...it was...moving so fast, fuck...and then I was, I was down here...oh, god.” Jess whimpered, remembering the hell of the last few hours she endured.  
Matt grimaced. “Jesus...can you move?”  
Jess nodded. “Yeah...”

Matt took direction. His demeanor shifted to that of a leader, something Jess had never witnessed before. He was always so sweet and quiet with Emily, with Mike and Chris. He took Jess by the shoulder. “Alright. Come on, Jess.”

As they walked forward, the awful screech rang through the rock walls again. Matt led them away from the tunnels and into the shaft where Jessica fell.

“Look at that. Some sort of cave-in here.” Matt pointed at the damaged elevator.  
“That was me.” Jess replied, weakly.  
“What?” Matt stared at the shaft, confused.  
“I fell through that roof.” Jess wrapped her arms around herself.  
“You fell this far? Jesus, that makes two of us.” Matt grumbled in disbelief.  
“What?” The blonde girl moved closer to Matt as they began the descent into the tunnels. It had to be the only way out.  
“I fell off a goddamned fire tower to get here.” Matt replied.  
“You’re kidding me.” Jessica exhaled the words like a breath of air.

The two walked further, straight through the tunnels until they heard it again.  
That terrible shriek.  
Matt whirled around. “Huh?!” He stepped in front of Jess, guarding her. “Fuck..” Jess whispered.  
“J-Jess?” Matt led her forwards, away from the sound. “Which way?” Matt muttered.  
Matt was itching to run. Every instinct, every muscle, every bone in his goddamned body was telling him to get the fuck out of here and get the fuck out now. But then he looked back at Jess.

She was barely standing. She had no clothes, at least not any weather-appropriate. There was no way she could run.

“Alright, come on Jess.” Matt guided her into a small room and they hid behind the thin walls. The creature, whatever it was, jumped on the wall beside them, before leaping away.

Jessica felt something rise up in her. Oh no. She had moved too fast, too soon. Nausea twisted in her stomach, gutting her as her knees grew weak, as the ground came flying towards her face.

“Ah!” She gasped in pain as Matt caught her by the shoulders.  
“Shhh..shhh.” Matt rubbed her arm, pulling her into him. “Jeez...does this hurt?” Jess nodded. “Oh, god...” She whimpered again.

Matt led her out of the room. “Alright...alright. Let’s go. We gotta do this, get out of here. Come on!” He said this with determination, rather than aggression or roughness like Mike or Josh would’ve.  
“Come on, come on, come on.” He was saying it more to himself than Jess at this point. She felt bad not being able to keep up, but her every step felt like torture.

“Jess!! Come on, come on.” He said, encouraging her to walk just a little faster, mustering every bit of strength she had left.  
Matt’s face switched to one of fear, for just a split second, before he broke through the rotting wooden boards blocking their path to the outside of the mountain. Jess followed him out as he almost stumbled off the cliff, grabbing his arm just in time to steady him.  
“Oh my God...okay....” She strained, leading Matt to the side of the mine’s exit.  
Jess and Matt stood, still as statues, while the creature screeched its agonizing screech. After what felt like a century, it scrambled back into the mines.

Matt leaned over, chest heaving. “Whoo!” Jess held a hand to her heart. She thought for sure they were goners.  
“Alright..what do we do now, Matt? Where do we go?” She asked, uncertainly.  
“I don’t...I don’t...just, let me think for a second, okay?” Matt put his hands on his head, urging himself to think.  
After a moment, Matt gathered his thoughts. 

“Okay. Me and Emily were...we were trying to make it from the cable car station to the radio tower. To signal for help.” Matt grimaced at the thought of Em. What had happened to her. “She called help, and then the tower fell. But the cable car station should still be intact.”  
He nodded to himself. “Alright, Jess, we’re going to the station. Now let’s get the hell off this clifftop.”  
Jess nodded as Matt took the lead. As they headed into the wind, she began to shiver more fiercely. The cold infested her, infected her like an illness.

When they were halfway down the cliff, Jess stumbled against the rocks, shaking.  
“Holy shit, Jess, are you okay?” Matt turned back, putting his hands on Jess’s shoulders to steady her. Jess grabbed his arms. “Yeah...just..cold.” She mumbled, struggling to stand.  
Matt immediately took off his jacket and placed it around her shoulders. “Jesus...I’m sorry, Jess, I mean, I’m over here wearing extra sweatpants and a jacket, and you’re fucking freezing, I’m an idiot.” He shook his head as he took off his sweatpants, leaving him in his baggy jeans and sweatshirt. “We’re halfway down. We’ve almost made it, okay? You’re gonna be okay.” Matt said as Jessica put on the sweatpants. “Thank you...” She whispered, feeling more indebted to him than ever.  
~  
Jess shivered as Matt opened the door to the cable car station. It wasn’t exactly warm, but it wasn’t as cold as the outside, either.  
“I busted this thing open with an axe earlier. That’s why there’s all these dents and shit in the door.” Matt said.  
He led Jess over to a bench inside of the station. Then, he got to work. “Okay...there’s gotta be some sort of emergency kit in here...” He rummaged around the different cabinets and drawers. Jess leaned her head against the wall, exhausted.  
“Jackpot!!” Matt yelled, revealing a medium-sized case filled with various bandages and medications. “Hey, there’s a heavy blanket in here.” He took the blanket out of the case and wrapped it around Jess. “Thanks..” Jess whispered, barely awake. Matt tucked stray strands of blonde hair out of her face.  
“Jess, I know it’s hard, but you have to stay awake. You could have a concussion or something.” Jess nodded. Okay, one job. Stay awake. She could do that.

Matt dug through the case again. “Jessica, this kit has some walkie talkies. I’m going to get on the roof and see if I can get a better signal, alright? Just stay under that blanket and get warm.” Jess nodded wearily.  
They had to survive. They had to.  
~  
“Okay, Jess. It’s all going to be okay. The police know where we are, and they’re sending another helicopter for us.” Matt wrapped his arm around Jess. She was glad for the warmth, for the sense of safety. But she also felt guilt. For how she treated Matt in the lodge.

“Matt...oh, Matt, I’m sorry. About everything I said...in the lodge..” She mumbled.  
“There’s nothing to apologize for.” Matt rubbed her shoulder. “I love Emily, but she can be...aggressive.”  
Jessica laughed. “That’s one way to put it. If you don’t mind me asking...why do you let her treat you that way?”  
The teenager shook his head. “She-Emily is-she just...” Matt’s voice trailed off as he realized he had no definitive reason to excuse her behavior. “Emily is a perfectionist. When I just do things her way, she’s smart and funny and cool. I just let her tell me what she wants, and do it to the best of my ability.” Matt bit his lip.  
“What about what you want, Matt? It’s your relationship too.” The blonde uttered.  
Matt shuffled his feet. “Look, we can’t all be you and Mike, okay?”  
Jessica laughed again, but it wasn’t a happy laugh. “Me and Mike aren’t perfect. Not by a long shot.”  
“What?”  
Jess shook her head. “Mike is fun to party with. But whenever something serious comes up, he avoids it or gets annoyed when I bring it up. Like, the Em thing.” Her eyes began to water.  
“If they’re really just friends, why doesn’t he talk about her with me? Why doesn’t he talk about anything beyond surface-level with me?”  
She sniffed. She didn’t want to cry in front of Matt.  
“But Jess-you’re so-“ Matt was cut off by Jess’s hand.  
“I know I act totally confident, but underneath...I’m really just kinda insecure. And sometimes...I don’t think Mike knows how to handle it.” Jess took a deep breath. “But please, please don’t tell Mike any of that. I shouldn’t have told you all that, he’s a good guy. He saved my life today. You both did.”  
Matt smiled, and shook his head. “I couldn’t have done it alone.” He sighed. “Look, maybe what you and Mike need is just...better communication. I know you don’t want to, but you should tell him what you told me and-“  
Jessica scoffed. “I could say the same for you and Em.”  
They looked at each other for a long, hard moment.

Jessica’s face softened. Matt placed his hand on her neck. For a few moments, it was like time stopped.  
He remembered how they were such good friends in high school. Her as the head cheerleader, and him as the captain of the football team. Just friends. Good ones.  
Why had they never thought to see the other in a different way?

“Matt...did I say something wrong?” Jess asked, innocently.  
Matt shook his head. His heart was beating faster than ever before. He wanted to kiss her, tell her he should have realized it was her all along, like the cheesy sap that he knew he was.

But he thought better of it. They’d been through hell tonight. He was probably thinking in pure adrenaline, and Jess was probably delirious from pain. He couldn’t be in love with Jess. She had a boyfriend. And Emily was his girlfriend.  
Jessica was just his friend. And it’d have to stay that way.

A shuttling sound drew across the station. “The helicopter...it’s here.” Matt took Jessica’s hand and lifted her from the bench.  
They walked toward the door as an officer barged in. “Matthew Taylor? Are you Matthew Taylor?” The officer asked. Matt nodded, guiding Jess forward. “All right. Both of you, come with me.” 

They boarded the airplane, Jess stumbling on the platform but ultimately making it up safely. They were buckled into their respective seats by two different officers.  
As the crew prepared for liftoff, the pair held tight to each other’s hands. Neither wanted to be the one to let go first.  
And though it went unspoken, each one knew that something had changed between the two of them.


End file.
